The present invention provides an end sill assembly for a railroad car. More specifically, an extended length end sill assembly is provided for a railcar, with a truck assembly deeply recessed from a railcar end. Further, two as-cast components are mated to provide the end-sill assembly, which assembly is then connected to the railcar center sill. The longitudinal axes of the first and second as-cast components are vertically offset from each other to accommodate the height of the truck assembly and the alignment of the juxtaposed couplers of adjacent railcars.
Historically the elongated end-sill assemblies for automobile-carrying railcars have been fabricated components due to the extreme length of the end-sill arrangement. The fabrication process was both tedious and expensive. Casting the components of the as-cast end-sill assemblies provides two cast elements, which are ready for mating assembly and securement. This mating assembly eliminates the necessity for the fabrication and assembly of large plate sections to manufacture an elongate end-sill assembly, thus saving fabrication time and labor costs, as well as reducing the amount of space required for final assembly, storage of plate materials and the avoidance of multiple welds, which require care and inspection to avoid cold welds, porosity or other critical manufacturing defects. The casting parameters are more easily controlled on a more consistent basis, thus the component dimensions are more consistently repeated for ease of joining with mating parts.
The noted two-component system also moves the integrally cast center-plate and truck bolster into closer proximity to each other, which increases the available lading capacity of the railcar.
There are several extant cast draft sills and one is noted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,068 to Nolan. This structure is built with a generally planar base and planar top wall. It includes a tapered transition element at its inboard end for mating with the center sill. A pocket with a supporting rib structure is cast into the inboard end to receive a center filler plate. This disclosed end sill is expected to be between three and four feet in length, which is generally the length-dimension range of disclosed end sill structures for freight railcars in the U.S.
Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,899 to Kaufhold et al. discloses a cast draft sill with an integrally cast wheel truck connection. In one embodiment of this disclosure, a center pin extends downward from the draft-sill bottom for mating engagement with a standard center plate of a truck bolster.
A third cast draft-sill is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,101 to Kaufhold et al., which teaches a light weight draft sill with an integrally cast center-plate. However, in this disclosure and the above-noted patent structures the draft sills are single cast units with a single longitudinal axis generally provided between an upper plane and a lower plane. None of the structures are designed to accommodate an elongate end-sill assembly. Further, there is no disclosure or teaching of an angled end-sill assembly, either as a fabrication or casting.
The present invention provides a two-component cast end-sill assembly for mating with a center sill of a freight railcar. The first and front cast component or sill includes a housing for a cushioning device and the coupler shank. This first cast component has a longitudinal axis generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the center sill. The back and second cast component of the end-sill assembly is mated to the center sill and has its longitudinal axis generally in alignment with the longitudinal axis of the railcar center sill. The elongated end-sill assembly is especially adaptable to automobile-carrier railcars where the lower longitudinal axis of the back sill permits added lading capacity while the front sill permits the coupler and cushioning devices to function in their normal modes of operation. The undercarriage truck assembly in these automobile carriers is displaced at an extended distance from the railcar ends, which requires use of the elongated end-sill assemblies and the long-shank couplers. The present assembly allows the use of the bell-mouth or wide-mouth front-sill to accept the long-shank coupler and permit adequate lateral motion of the coupler shank during railcar operation. In addition, the placement of the supporting rib structures allows expeditious mounting of the body bolster to the back sill, and the integral center plate assembly provides the mating center plate with a reduction in weight to the overall end-sill assembly, which weight reduction permits added railcar lading capacity.